Chicken Impeachment: Enugu Assembly impeaches Deputy Governor, Sunday Onyebuchi
Onyebuchi’s impeachment followed his indictment by a seven-man panel of inquiry, which investigated allegations levelled against him by members of the Enugu State House of Assembly.
The panel, in its report, held that Onyebuchi was guilty of the allegations brought against him.
“The allegations of gross misconduct levelled against the Deputy Governor of Enugu State, Mr. Sunday Onyebuchi, by the Enugu State House of Assembly have been proved,” the panel, headed by Mr. Franklin Oraekeyi, stated in the report.
The members of the house adopted the report of the panel after the House Leader, Hon. S.K.E. Udeh-Okoye, moved a motion for its adoption.
Ude-Okoye, who sponsored the motion on notice alongside 21 other members of the house, numbered HM/06/2014, noted that the motion was in line with the provisions of section 188 (9) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, which provided for the removal of members of the executive arm of government.
The motion called for a resolution of the house to consider the report of the investigation panel on the allegations of gross misconduct of the deputy governor, and that the house, having carefully considered the report of the investigative panel, “do adopt it.”
Onyebuchi was accused of running an illegal poultry in his official residence, an offence according to a resolution of the house, and also refusing to represent Governor Sullivan Chime at official functions, in spite of a directive from the governor.
The panel was told that the stench from the poultry was an embarrassment to the state government, which had to relocate the chickens in order to check the offensive odour.
It was also alleged that the poultry constituted severe health hazards to residents, staff and visitors in the government house.
But Onyebuchi, who claimed that he was not aware of the whereabouts of the chickens since they were moved, retaliated by alleging that the governor also operated an official poultry and piggery in the Government House.
He pointed to sums allocated to the said poultry and piggery in the state’s budget to justify his claim.
However, in a statement, Chime’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Chukwudi Achife, denied Onyebuchi’s allegation, explaining that the poultry mentioned by the deputy governor was part of the ‘Agric Unit’ in the Government House, which served both the governor’s and deputy governor’s official residences, as well as the needs of the staff.
hmmm chicken impeachment indeed
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